Thatcham, Berkshire
Historical Description
Thatcham, a village and a parish in Berks. The village stands 1 mile SE from the G.W.R., on which it has a station, and 3 miles E from Newbury. It has a post, money order, and telegraph office under Newbury. The parish is bounded on the S by the river Auburn, which here separates Berks from Hants, and is intersected by the river Kennet and the Kennet and Avon Canal. Acreage, 7865; population of the civil parish, 2900; of the ecclesiastical, 2108. Thatcham was anciently a market-town, but the market has long been discontinued. Crookham House and Little Park House are chief residences. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net value, £306 with residence. The church is a fine building in mixed styles, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, S porch, and an embattled pinnacled western tower. It has a fine Norman doorway, several ancient tombs and memorials, and some good stained windows. There are Congregational and Wesleyan chapels, an endowed school, and several valuable charities. Cold Ash, Greenham, and Midg-ham are noticed under separate headings.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
| Ancient County | Berkshire | |
| Ecclesiastical parish | Thatcham St. Luke | |
| Hundred | Faircross | |
| Poor Law union | Newbury |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Church Records
The register dates from the year 1561, and has been carefully reprinted.
Churches
Church of England
St. Mary (parish church)
The church of St. Mary is a very fine structure in mixed styles, consisting of chancel, nave, aisles, south porch and an embattled western tower with pinnacles, containing 6 bells and a clock with chimes: adjoining the chancel is St. Anne's chapel, built by Lady Anne Danvers in 1504 as a burial place for her husband, Sir William Danvers, and herself; this chapel has been furnished and adapted for daily services, chiefly with the aid of Lord Hambleden, the surviving representative of the Danvers family; the chapel contains a monument of the Fuller family, of Chamber House, 1620, as well as memorials to Sir Archer Croft, 3rd bart. of Croft Castle, Hertfordshire, who died 30th Nov. 1792, and to Frances, his mother, wife of Sir Archer Croft, and bart. M.P. who died in 1767; there is also an altar tomb to Sir William Danvers, one of the judges of the Common Pleas and a "Knight of the Sworde," made at the marriage of Prince Arthur, 17th Nov. 1501, who died in 1504: and floor stones of the Tull family, to whom the chapel now belongs: there are several stained windows and an extremely fine Norman doorway in the south porch: the chancel arch is also in the Norman style, but is modern: the tower has a Decorated doorway and windows of the same date: the church was fully restored about 1852, and affords 600 sittings.
Brethren
Brethren Meeting Place
There is a meeting place for Plymouth Brethren.
Congregational
Congregational Chapel
There is a Congregational chapel, erected in 1804, seating 300.
Methodist
Primitive Methodist Chapel
There is a Primitive Methodist chapel.
Wesleyan Chapel
There is a Wesleyan chapel.
Civil Registration
For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.
Thatcham was in Hungerford Registration District from 1837 to 1974
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Thatcham from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Thatcham (St. Luke))
- Kelly's Directory of Berkshire, 1915
Land and Property
The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Berkshire is available to browse.
Maps
Online maps of Thatcham are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Berkshire papers online:
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitations of Berkshire 1532, 1566, and 1665-6 is available online.